|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
Mothership
From The StarCraft 2 Wiki
The Protoss Mothership is the latest and greatest in the Protoss fleet. It is the ultimate weapon, which is sure to cause a lot of devastation, and also sure to draw a lot of fire.
Contents |
[edit] Background
| StarCraft II Unit [e] | |
|---|---|
| |
| Mothership | |
| Race: | Protoss |
| Role: | Capital Ship |
| Unit Statistics | |
| Size: | Large |
| Type: | Mechanical, Massive, Psionic, Air |
| Speed: | Slow |
| Transport Slots: | N/A |
| Hit Points: | 400 |
| Plasma Shields: | 400 |
| Energy Points: | 200 |
| Offence | |
| Armament: | Rift Burst |
| Ground Attack: | 8x8 |
| Air Attack: | 8x8 |
| Range: | 7 |
| Defence | |
| Armor: | Armored 2 |
| Sight: | x |
| Cooldown: | Fast |
| Special Abilities | |
| Pulls enemy units in and places them into stasis. | |
| Cloaks all nearby friendly units around the caster. | |
| Production | |
| Hotkey: | M |
| Supply: |  6
|
| Resources: |  400  400
|
| Build Time: | 120 |
| Produced by: | Nexus |
| Prerequisite: | Fleet Beacon & Twilight Council |
At the heart of each Mothership is a huge Khaydarin crystal infused with an incredible amount of psionic energy. By tapping into this energy, a Mothership can warp or crack the very fabric of space and time itself. The devastating power of a Mothership can wipe out squadrons of enemy ships in the blink of an eye or lay waste to entire planets. As the golden age reached its apogee, the Motherships were left in place as titanic monuments at the farthest reaches of Protoss exploration. It was believed that their like would not be needed again.
After the loss of Aiur, however, the Motherships were called back into service from the far corners of the galaxy. Now they are crewed not with mystics and historians, but with warriors. The oldest and most powerful weapons of the Protoss have been awakened and are prepared to burn the galaxy to avenge the loss of the Protoss homeworld.
[edit] StarCraft II Unit
The Mothership is the true capital ship for the Protoss air fleet, being the most expensive and possessing some of the more useful abilities in the game. Primarily in support, the Mothership also serves as an excellent offensive unit capable of devastating an unprepared enemy.
One of these is the Time Bomb, a skill that creates a vacuum bubble around the target that disables all incoming fire. This is particularly useful against enemy static defenses and can serve as both a defensive or offensive skill. Any air units, friend or foe, that enter this bubble will also be disabled for the duration.
Vortex is reminiscent of the original Black Hole ability that was briefly shown during the Protoss gameplay demonstration video. However instead of warping enemy ships out of the battlefield, Vortex creates a temporary field that pulls nearby units and disables them for the duration.
The final ability, the Cloaking Field, requires the Mothership to be idle for it to be activated. This field is not considered passive, unlike the original skill from the Arbiter, so it is rumored to drain energy the longer it is activated.
It was confirmed as part of Q&A Batch 36 that the Mothership can survive a Nuke.
[edit] Abilities
[edit] Upgrades
[edit] Development
When the Mothership as first revealed, as part of the original Protoss gameplay trailer mid May '07, only one could be built and it started with three abilities: the Time Bomb, Planet Cracker and the Black Hole.
The Blizzcon '07 build saw the unique status (only one ship) removed along with the Time Bomb and Black Hole. During this time, the Mothership also gained Cloaking Field and the Starcraft2.com update hinted at the return of Time Bomb.
In mid December '07, Karune confirmed that the Mothership can now attack air. In early Feb '08 the unique status was returned only to again be removed in late March '08 with the addition of a new ability: Vortex.
Time Bomb and Black Hole are then confirmed as part of the Q&A Batch 35 to have been removed from the Mothership in favor of two new abilities, Recall and Energy Transfer. Time Bomb was quickly returned a few days later. During these tweaks, Time Bomb was change from a self-cast ability to a targeted skill.
The unique status of the Mothership was rumored to have returned, however it looks to have been removed again since it was possible to build multiple ships in the Blizzcon '08 build. Planet Cracker, Recall and Energy Transfer were all absent from Blizzcon '08, and Vortex was returned.
Cydra confirmed that the Mothership has the unique status once again in December '08.
Karune and Cydra report that the unit will not have the unique status in February '09 in the Q&A batch 49.5.
- All changes subject to balance.
[edit] Trivia
The Mothership is arguably the unit that has received the most changes and tweaks since the start of StarCraft 2's development.
[edit] Gallery
- General StarCraft II Shots
- An animation of the Mothership warping into the battlefield (3MB)
Closeup of the Mothership. |
 Top-view of the Mothership. |
 An early shot of the Mothership wireframe. |
 Concept art for the Mothership. |
 The interior of the Mothership? |
 A Mothership casting Time Bomb. |
 A Mothership casting Black Hole. |
 A Mothership casting Planet Cracker. |
 Another two Motherships attacking a Terran base. |
 A Mothership supporting an assault on the Zerg. |
 A Mothership defends a Protoss base. |
|
 An assault on the Terrans. |
| Protoss Units (StarCraft II) [e] | |
|---|---|
| Ground Units: | Probe | Zealot | Stalker | Nullifier | Immortal | Colossus | High Templar | Archon | Dark Templar |
| Air Units: | Warp Prism | Observer | Phoenix | Void Ray | Carrier (Interceptor) | Mothership |
| Basic Buildings: | Nexus | Assimilator | Pylon | Gateway | Warp Gate | Forge | Photon Cannon | Cybernetics Core |
| Advanced Buildings: | Twilight Council | Templar Archives | Dark Obelisk | Robotics Facility | Null Circuit | Stargate | Fleet Beacon |
| Cancelled Units: | Purifier | Reaver | Star Relic | Tempest (Shuriken) |
| Cancelled Buildings: | Phase Cannon | War Shrine | War Beacon | Dark Pylon | Observatory |
| Protoss Units (StarCraft I & Brood War) [e] | |
|---|---|
| Ground Units: | Probe | Zealot | Dragoon | Reaver | High Templar | Archon | Dark Templar | Dark Archon |
| Air Units: | Shuttle | Scout | Arbiter | Carrier (Interceptor) | Observer | Corsair |
| Basic Buildings: | Nexus | Assimilator | Pylon | Gateway | Forge | Shield Battery | Cybernetics Core | Photon Cannon |
| Advanced Buildings: | Robotics Facility | Stargate | Citadel of Adun | Robotics Support Bay | Fleet Beacon | Templar Archives | Observatory | Arbiter Tribunal |
| Hero ground units: | Dark Templar (Hero) (dt) | Zeratul (dt, arc) | Tassadar (ht, arc) | Fenix (zl, dr) | Warbringer (r) |
| Hero air units: | Mojo (sct) | Gantrithor (cr) | Danimoth (arb) | Artanis (sct) |
| (dt) = Dark Templar, (arc) = Archon, (ht) = High Templar, (zl) = Zealot, (dr) = Dragoon, (r) = Reaver, (sct) = Scout, (cr) Carrier, (arb) = Arbiter | |
